Lil's Pad

Blood tests came back with the news that Bren isn't, thank goodness, allergic to any environmental factors, but is allergic to a list of foods topped by beef and milk, but continuing, at varying levels, with lamb, pork, corn(maize) and turkey. As we have been feeding him hypoallergenic food containing lamb and treats containing turkey, this necessitated a trip to our local pet shop, for ordering of Duck and White Fish versions of the food on which we have been feeding him, and packets of Duck based food and treats. He is okay with eggs, chicken, potato, rice and wheat as well. If he develops further allergies there is highly specialised stuff using hydrolysed protein.

Anyhow, I'm going to start the shift tonight (he will still have to have some lamb-based stuff mixed in to keep his stomach happy) and hopefully we might actually see a little improvement by Monday when we go to see Scott.

I just hope that the reason there's been no reaction to duck/fish/chicken is not that he's never eaten them. I may look into one of these companies that delivers fresh food and see if we can afford it.

Well, it isn't that complicated because, say, James Wellbeloved only contains the meat or fish stated, plus rice, plus tomato plus herbs. The other hypoallergenic foods contain a similar mix, so the salmon and potato jobbie will only contain those a veggies - and dogs are generally not allergic to veggies.

Well, at least you know what it is, which is something. I went through the 'try this, then try that, then try cooking things yourself' method with my cat, which was a bit frustrating (not to say messy, as the symptoms were stomach upsets rather than itching). As far as we could tell at the time, she seems to be sensitive to just about everything, including home-cooked chicken and rice, except Hills Prescription i/d dry food. I suspect that it's actually more complicated than that, but as we have a solution which works for everyone I'm not that inclined to risk having an unhappy cat, unhappy humans and unhappy carpets in order to investigate further.

I think the Hills you are using has hydralised protein which our vet has on his list as the final reserve.

Blood tests that can pick out the allergens are very, very new. (And probably expensive, though our vet knows we are insured so hasn't said anything.) They are the alternative to having a dermatologist shave a large path of skin and inject tiny amounts of allergens under it, all under anesthesia, which is damn expensive and probably means a long journey for the animal.